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Friday, June 24, 2011

Peace and the Freedom of expression

As a blogger and a youth writer peace means “the freedom of expression” to me. I have seen Nepal transit through monarchy to a republican state. The transition was not easy. During the political unrest, I have seen the seizure of right to expression. It was a dark age which we have definitely left behind and a new era has emerged –the era where the right to expression is ensured and this means real peace to me.

The period of Maoist insurgency was the hardest period for media persons. You could not either criticize the government or write the brutality of terrorists. It was a dark era. One could not go to villages to collect the news while publication houses in the cities were censored heavily. Media persons could not express their frustrations with the prevailing scenario.

That was the matter of the past. Today, even in the world’s giant like China and other countries like Iran, Bhutan, among others where governments seem stable enforce totalitarian government resulting in the seizure of freedom of expression. You can’t talk about the dissident awarded Nobel Peace prize in China or Tibet or ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang region. Similarly, there exists an autocratic monarch in Bhutan. These totalitarian governments control the media there and there exist no peace in a true sense.

Recently, micro blogging sites and social networks brought the like minded protestors to the streets of Egypt that made Mubarak flee and the good point is this wave is gaining momentum. This is the power of media and the possibilities that freedom of expression pose.